Wymondham commutes in two directions and works from home in a third, which means a great many external drives doing important jobs on kitchen tables. When one stops, it goes to the bench by tracked post and comes back with an answer.
Wymondham jobs are diagnosed free. One fixed written quote before any work begins — no fix, no fee on most recoveries.
The abbey has stood over this town since 1107 and its two towers are the result of an argument between monks and parishioners that ran for centuries, which is a useful reminder that things built to last still need looking after. Wymondham's modern data risk is quieter. NR18 is full of people who work from home for firms in Norwich, Cambridge or London: consultants, designers, accountants and researchers whose working life sits on one laptop and one backup drive plugged into the same extension lead. When that lead takes a surge both copies go together, and the search that follows is usually for data recovery specialists rather than for another computer shop. Around them are the small businesses on the Ayton Road and Browick Road estates, the shops around the Market Cross, and households whose photographs stopped being printed somewhere around 2006 and have lived on a disc ever since.
The service is post-in and always has been. Take the bare drive out, pad it so nothing rattles, send it tracked and insured, and it is at the bench the next working day from any Wymondham counter. If you would rather use a courier you already book, do — that is your arrangement to make and to pay for. If you're heading down the A11 anyway, leave it at the desk instead — Cambridge Data Recovery, Compass House, Vision Park, Chivers Way, Cambridge CB24 9AD, open on weekdays from 9am until 5:30pm, two minutes off the A14 at Junction 32. There is no collection service, so nothing depends on being in when a van isn't calling.
Everything then runs the same way. The diagnostic costs nothing, finishes inside 2 working days of the parcel arriving, and ends in a call with the fault named and one fixed figure in writing. Logical recoveries — deleted work, corruption, a volume that will not mount — carry no fix, no fee. Physical damage of any kind, along with electrical faults, water and fire, means the clean-air bench or board-level repair, and 50% of the quote is paid before that begins with the balance due only if the data comes back. Forensic work covers ransomware, camera recorders and BitLocker, and is settled in full at the start.
Two boundaries worth knowing before you pack anything: phones and tablets are out, and so is memory soldered directly onto a logic board. If the drive can be unplugged or unscrewed, we can work on it. Hethersett, Spooner Row, Hingham, Barford, Mulbarton and the villages either side of the A11 all use the same tracked post-in route, and 0800 689 0668 costs nothing to ring from any of them.
Most of what reaches this bench arrived by tracked, insured post. It is the steadiest way to move a poorly drive, and a parcel posted in Norfolk is usually on the bench the next working day.
Is the drive still bolted inside a laptop, desktop, MacBook, iMac, server or CCTV / DVR recorder? The hard drive or SSD needs to come out first, and only the bare drive travels — taking drives out of machines is not something we do here. Storage soldered to a motherboard (Apple Silicon Macs, one or two very thin laptops) is the single thing beyond us: if it will not come out, it cannot come in.
↓ Print the shipping & booking-in form (PDF)
Mark the parcel for the attention of Cambridge Data Recovery. From Norwich it is about an hour and twenty down the A11, then two minutes off the A14 at Junction 32 — or next working day by tracked post. You hear from us as soon as it is booked onto the bench.
Unsure what to put in the box? Ring 0800 689 0668 before you seal it, or run the free online diagnostic.
Diagnosis costs nothing, the figure is written down, and most jobs carry no fix no fee. Online or by phone.